


New Rome, California

by ovk



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2018-12-22 20:43:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11974656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ovk/pseuds/ovk
Summary: Small town AU. Reyna comes to be the new police chief of New Rome, California (population: 300), and meets the gang, including Thalia. Especially Thalia.The characters are all twenty- or thirty-somethings. All canon pairings are the same, and are mostly background (but will be more than mentions, I hope). I'll try to add character/relationship tags as I go along and as they appear so as not to clutter the search engine.I expect this to be a slow burn, but they'll get there!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This idea popped into my head after not having thought about PJO for ages, and I thought, hey, why not?
> 
> I apologize in advance for any wrong terminology; I obviously don't know anything about the logistics of police work. I'll do my best to circumlocute, though.
> 
> Also, I don't really have a clear idea of where this is headed or how it's headed there apart from it being a Theyna pairing, so I welcome any suggestions/requests!

It had never exactly been Reyna's dream to be police chief of a small mountain town, but she was the kind of person who always took everything in stride. So when circumstances had forced her to get out of her old position in Berkeley, and her lieutenant recommended her for this position in the town of New Rome, California, she hadn't protested.

The town was lovely, hidden in the mountains, with big, clear skies and fresh air. It was far different from anywhere Reyna had ever lived; she was used to bustling cities, smog and traffic, tourists and public urination. The only thing New Rome had in common was the tourists. Dakota, the police dispatcher, had told her that tourists and vacation homeowners accounted for most of the town's visitors; the full-time residents comprised only some three hundred people. And Reyna could see why New Rome was attractive to tourists; a river flowed right on the edge of town, making it a popular summer destination for rafting and fishing, and it was also close to the nearest ski town. And it was as conveniently located as a rural town could be, because it was only a half-hour's drive from the nearest biggish city.

Still, New Rome had a lot of the essentials: a small market with both clothing and groceries, a fast food joint, a hotel with a restaurant, an auto mechanic and gas station, a sporting goods store and tour company, and a small dollar store. Everything was family-owned, which Reyna wasn't used to. It was a nice change from the impersonality of the overcrowded bay area.

So far, from the few days Reyna had spent in New Rome, she liked the quiet solitude of the little mountain town. Her house, though small, was comfortable and far from her neighbors. The one thing she didn't like was that since the town was so small, gossip travelled at the speed of light. She supposed she could handle it; she just had to keep her head down and not get too close with any of the townspeople. Reyna didn't expect that to be a problem. She knew how to isolate herself from people; she'd been doing it her whole life.

Reyna had a few days to settle in before starting her new job. So far, the only people she knew in the town were her officers, a couple named Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque, and a guy named Jason Grace. While Frank and Hazel were relatively new, Jason had lived in New Rome his whole life and had been a member of the police department ever since he'd been old enough. He'd been in line to become chief, but he had turned down the position because he didn't want all the extra responsibilities. Reyna couldn't blame him; being chief of a four-man department would mean a lot of call hours and a lot of work, and Jason was married and had a family life.

The day before her first day on the job, she was eating dinner at the Imperial, the restaurant attached to the hotel in the main square downtown. Since it was the only sit-down place in town, it was pretty crowded, but she sat at the bar and ordered a salad. Unfortunately, the guy working the bar was intent on talking to her. He had curly black hair and mischievous eyes, and Reyna couldn't help but notice his constant fidgeting. He seemed so easily distracted that Reyna was concerned about his ability to keep track of everyone's orders, but he seemed more than on top of his work.

“Hey, you're Reyna Ramirez-Arellano, the new police chief, right?” he asked her, as he bustled by.

She nodded, slightly thrown by his use of her full name. They hadn't even met yet. News really did travel fast around here.

“Cool,” he grinned, setting a glass of water in front of her. “I'm Leo Valdez. Mechanic by day. Waiter by night.” He flashed her another grin and sunk into a mock little bow. She nodded and smiled politely, although she wished he would leave her alone.

“So, you're from Berkeley, right?” Leo asked.

Reyna was surprised at how much he knew about her. Small town, she reminded herself.

“Er…yeah,” she said. To deflect attention from herself, she added, “How about you? Have you always lived here?”

“Nope, I only moved here about a year ago,” Leo said. “I lived in Houston before that. But when I came here for vacation, I fell in love with the place. I realized I had nothing really keeping me in Houston, so—” he shrugged— “I decided to move here.”

“Cool.”

“Who else have you met around here?” he asked, surveying the crowded restaurant. “I could make some introductions.”

“Uh, I've met a lot of people already,” she lied. She figured it would be true soon enough; being police chief in a tiny town like this made it impossible _not_ to meet a lot of the residents.

“Suit yourself,” Leo shrugged, as he put her salad in front of her. “Nice meeting you, Chief.” He made a slightly flippant little salute before leaving Reyna alone.

* * *

The next day, Reyna got up at the crack of dawn for a run before putting on her New Rome PD uniform and heading to the office for her first shift.

Dakota, the dispatcher, was already there. He bobbed his head at Reyna in greeting. “Morning, Chief,” he said in between mouthfuls of doughnut.

“Hey, Dakota. Anything new?”

“Not much,” he said. “The mayor called five minutes ago. She wanted to bump your meeting up to nine instead of ten.”

“Sure.”

“Otherwise, things are pretty quiet,” he said. Then he gave a big, goofy grin and said, "Here, catch,” before tossing her a doughnut.

Reyna snorted and caught the doughnut before going into her office, leaving the door open so she could still chat with Dakota. She liked him; he seemed capable but easygoing. Moreover, he didn't seem at all suspicious or resentful of her, as people were often wont to do with a new chief; policemen's allegiances weren't easily swayed. She got the same supportive feeling from Frank, Hazel, and Jason, and figured that even if it was a small town, at least it was friendly.

Frank and Hazel came in together a few minutes later. “Good morning, Chief,” they both said.

“Good morning,” Reyna greeted them. “What are you two up to today?”

“I have to finish writing an incident report for a shoplifting yesterday,” said Frank. “Some teenage tourist.”

“I'm going out on patrol,” Hazel said.

“I have a meeting with the mayor in half an hour, and then I'll join you,” Reyna told her.

Both Hazel and Frank looked a little perplexed.

“You'll join me…on patrol?” Hazel repeated slowly, as if she wasn't sure she'd heard properly.

Reyna nodded. “Is that so odd?”

“Frankly, yes,” Frank said. “Octavian would never do patrol with us.” He frowned and then added, “Actually, he would never do patrol, period.”

Reyna smiled. Octavian was her predecessor, and she hadn't known him at all apart from these sorts of disdainful comments his old officers had been making the past few days.

“Well, you should learn this about me,” she said. “I'll do whatever I can to help out.”

Everyone went to their work, and Reyna turned to her computer to answer a few emails. Her first day on the job, and she already had dozens to respond to.

At promptly nine o'clock, Dakota buzzed Reyna's office phone.

“Mayor Chase is here, Reyna,” he reported.

“Thanks, Dakota. Send her in.”

Reyna got up from her desk as the mayor, Annabeth Chase, walked in.

Reyna had met her twice before; once for her job interview here, and again when she'd arrived a few days ago. She liked Annabeth well enough; she seemed reasonable and intelligent, and treated Reyna with respect instead of like a servant. She also seemed to really care about the town and its residents, which was something that Reyna hadn't always experienced in bigger cities. Big-city mayors were often motivated by greed, but she didn't think that was the case with Annabeth.

They shook hands, and Reyna invited Annabeth to sit down across from her.

“So, Reyna,” Annabeth said, “How have you been settling in?”

“Very well, thank you.”

“Glad to hear it. I just wanted to meet with you to make sure you have everything you need, and to see if you have any questions?”

“None that I can think of,” Reyna said. “The other officers seem friendly and competent.”

“They are,” Annabeth agreed. “All right, then. I'll come in to meet with you every couple of weeks or so. In the meantime, just remember that I want you to work _with_ me, not _for_ me.”

“I can do that,” Reyna said. “Thanks, Annabeth.”

The mayor got up to leave. On her way out, she stopped at the door and said, “By the way, do you have plans this weekend?”

“Not really, no.”

“Percy and I are having a barbecue at our house on Saturday for dinner, and we'd love for you to come.”

“Oh.” Reyna didn't really want to go, but she figured it would be good to stay on good terms with New Rome's mayor, and she hadn't yet met Annabeth's husband. “Sure,” she said. “Should I bring anything?”

“Nope,” Annabeth said. “We'll have everything covered. A lot of other folks will be there, too, so it will be a good chance for you to meet more of the town.”

“Sounds great,” Reyna said a little reluctantly.

"Great. I'll see you then. And in the meantime, good luck."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reyna meets Thalia et al at the Jacksons' house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies about the long wait between chapters. I swear I didn't forget about this, but school and grad school applications kicked me in the caboose. Many thanks for the positive feedback! The fact that many of you took the time to leave kudos/comments really means a lot to me.
> 
> Anyhow, I'm just now realizing how difficult it is to write 10+ characters fairly equally (props to the OG Rick Riordan for managing it with such aplomb) - especially when I didn't like all of them equally to begin with. I'll continue to do my best, but just be aware that some characters will be very boring, and some characters will hardly be mentioned at all, at least not yet. I also haven't read the latest Trials of Apollo, so I have no idea what the Leo/Calypso dynamic is like.
> 
> I also wanted to note that when I wrote the first chapter over the summer, a poolside barbecue seemed totally natural. Now that it's winter, just the idea is making me shiver. So this was pretty bizarre to write.

Thalia arrived at the Jacksons’ house half an hour early on Saturday to help with the grilling. She usually did that, not because Percy and Annabeth needed help, but because she liked to help out, and they - particularly Annabeth - liked having her around.

She made her way out to the backyard, by the pool, where Percy was doing laps.

“Hey, Seaweed Brain,” Thalia called as Percy reached the edge.

“Pinecone Face!” Percy climbed out of the pool and dried himself off before fist-bumping her in greeting. “Just getting the pool time in before I get chained to the grill for the rest of the night.”

Thalia chuckled. “Well, I can take care of it whenever you want.”

“I might take you up on that. Go in and say hi to Annabeth. She was looking forward to seeing you.”

Thalia nodded and went in the glass sliding doors to the kitchen, where Annabeth was prepping a salad. She looked up from her dicing.

“Hey, Thalia,” she said, setting down her knife and giving her a hug.

“Hey, Annabeth. Need help?”

“Sure. Could you make the punch?"

“Sure. So who else is coming to this shindig? Jason says he’s sorry he can’t make it.” Thalia said as she got out the punch bowl.

“The usual crowd,” Annabeth replied. “Dakota might be coming. Frank and Hazel are coming, and Leo and Calypso. Nico and Will are going to try to make it, but they're coming from Will's parents’ house in the Bay area. And Piper is coming, too. Jason can't because he's on patrol, as you know. And Reyna, of course. Have you met her?”

“Not yet,” Thalia said. “I haven't heard much about her apart from that she's from Berkeley. How is she?”

“She seems really good so far,” Annabeth said. “She's nice and competent. She's a little uptight, but she's reasonable. I think everyone will like her.”

“Cool. I'm looking forward to meeting her.”

They worked in silence for a little while, until the doorbell rang. Annabeth went to get it, and soon came in with an unfamiliar woman who could only have been Reyna.

She was truthfully very pretty. She was a couple of inches shorter than Thalia, with a slender build, long, glossy black hair, which was pulled back in a braid, and dark brown, piercing eyes. But her expression was hard and guarded, and her smile when she shook Thalia's hand did not extend to her eyes. That was to say nothing of the gun holstered at her hip.

“Reyna, it's great to meet you. I've heard a lot about you,” Thalia said.

Reyna raised an eyebrow, almost looking worried. “Have you?”

Thalia laughed. “All good things. That’s just how it is here in New Rome. Just watch. You'll hear a lot about the next person who moves here before meeting them.”

Her expression relaxed slightly, and she nodded. “So…what do you do here, Thalia?”

“I’m the arson investigator for the fire department,” Thalia replied. “So I'm sure our work will cross paths soon enough. I was going to come in to meet you next week anyway.”

“Oh,” Reyna said and, for the first time, the police chief gave Thalia the tiniest flicker of a genuine smile. “I'll look forward to working with you.”

“And you,” Thalia smiled back.

They each grabbed a few serving platters and took them out to the pool, where Percy was just beginning to fire up the grill.

“Hey,” Percy said, grinning at Reyna and sticking out his hand. He seemed utterly unfazed by her stiff expression. “I’m Percy. You must be Reyna. I've heard a lot about you.”

Reyna glanced at Thalia with a tiny frown. “So I've heard.”

“Well, welcome to New Rome.”

“Thanks. Everyone has been really kind.”

“Well,” Percy said, “why don't you two load up your plates and have a seat? Everyone else should be here soon.”

So Thalia and Reyna helped themselves to burgers and salad, and went a ways away to sit at one of the tables by the pool.

“So…” Thalia said, as they pulled out their chairs. “Are you on call?”

“Yep,” Reyna replied, absently fingering the gun on her belt. “Are you?”

Thalia nodded.

“So…how long have you lived here?” Reyna asked as she cut her burger in half.

“I grew up here,” Thalia explained. “I moved to Oakland in my twenties to do my training, but I moved back about five years ago.”

“Why did you move?”

Thalia hesitated. It wasn’t clear whether Reyna was talking about Thalia’s move to Oakland or about her move back to New Rome, but either way the answer was the same, and she shrugged. “I just needed a change of scenery, I guess. How about you?”

A shadow of something - maybe fear, maybe sadness - flickered in Reyna's eyes, but it was gone so quickly that Thalia wasn't even sure she'd seen it. Reyna’s expression hardened again, and then she said rather stiffly, “I needed a change of scenery, too.”

Thalia nodded. She was considering asking for more details when they heard the sounds of footsteps and lively conversation headed their way. Looking up, Thalia saw Leo, Calypso, Frank, Hazel, Nico, Will, and Piper all making their way into the yard. She and Reyna both stood up to greet the newcomers.

Thalia decided it fell to her to make the introductions. “Reyna, this is Leo…oh, you’ve already met? This is Calypso. That's Will, and that's Nico. Nico is Hazel's brother. And you already know Frank and Hazel…and this is Piper - Jason's wife. Everyone, this is Reyna, our new police chief.”

Reyna shook hands with everyone in greeting. If she was overwhelmed by the number of people she had just met, she didn't show it.

“So, Reyna…you’re living in that house on Via Praetoria, right?” Thalia asked.

Reyna raised an eyebrow, but she was smiling rather bemusedly. “I'm still not used to the way news seems to travel around this town.”

Nico rolled his eyes in commiseration. “I'm still not used to it, and I've been living here for years now,” he grumbled, and Will rumpled his hair affectionately.

The newcomers moved towards the grill to say hi to Percy and Annabeth and to put in their food requests. Meanwhile, Thalia and Reyna resumed their seats.

“I guess we're neighbors,” Thalia remarked. “I live a couple houses up the road from you.”

“Oh, so that's you,” Reyna said. “I already met most of my other neighbors.”

“Yep,” Thalia said. “I was out of town consulting on an arson case for most of last week, so I wasn't around when you moved in.”

“Do you do that a lot?” Reyna asked. “Travel for work, I mean.”

“It's not unusual,” Thalia replied. “The towns in this area are so small that if one of them needs help on one of their cases, I'll go help them out.”

Reyna nodded. “Annabeth mentioned that I might occasionally be sent out of town to help, too.”

“It's pretty rare,” Thalia said. “Crime and arson aren't all that common out here, but every couple of months, we get some interesting cases. It's usually the tourists.” She laughed.

"It'll be different from working in Berkeley, that's for sure," Reyna said. "I'm looking forward to it."

"Hey, Thalia!" Percy called across the yard. Looking over, Thalia saw him waving his barbecue tongs at her with those big puppy eyes of his.

Thalia rolled her eyes. "I offered to help with the grilling," she explained to Reyna, getting out of her chair. "That's my cue. But it was nice to meet you, Reyna. I look forward to working with you."

"Likewise," Reyna said with a smile.

At the grill, Percy handed the tongs to Thalia. "The burgers will be ready to flip in a couple of minutes," he said. "Thanks, Thalia. I'm going to grab something to drink."

Thalia leaned idly on the edge of the patio table, watching the others heading back and sitting with Reyna. She seemed more at ease now, smiling and chatting with everyone. Thalia was so distracted watching everyone from afar that she didn't hear Annabeth come up next to her.

"She's nice, isn't she?" Annabeth said, her grey eyes sparkling with something - amusement, maybe.

"Yep," Thalia agreed. "I think she'll be fun to have around."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next time: still not sure yet, but it'll probably be more interesting now that I have most of the dialogue/exposition stuff out of the way. Also, I hope it won't take me 3 months to get around to it, but no promises!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Thalia and Reyna make us feel bad about our fitness level, there's some good old-fashioned sibling squabbling, and mystery and intrigue come to visit!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should really just stop making promises about release dates of upcoming chapters...

The morning after the party, Reyna got up a little later than usual. She'd been out until midnight last night, and the barbecue had been more fun than she'd expected it to be, much to her surprise. Thalia had done a nice job of introducing her to the others, and after that it was a little easier since she already knew Frank, Hazel, and Leo. Leo had annoyed her the other night when she'd met him at the Imperial, but she quickly saw that his energy and sense of humor made everyone feel more at ease. Reyna wasn't usually one to hold first impressions against people.

After splashing some cold water on her face and getting changed, Reyna left her house to go on a run. One thing she liked about this town was her ability to leave home for a little while without locking up. So she left her keys, wallet, and phone on the hall table and jogged down her quarter-mile-long, unpaved driveway to the main road. That was another thing she liked about this place: she had an entire two-bedroom house on a four-acre property to herself, for about the same amount of money she spent on half of a five hundred square-foot apartment in a crappy neighborhood of the Bay Area.

Just as she was turning onto the main road, Reyna looked over and saw Thalia jogging in the same direction. The arson investigator's spiky black hair had an almost bluish tinge in the early morning light, and she smiled and waved to Reyna, signaling that she wanted to talk.

Reyna slowed to a stop, waiting for Thalia to catch up. Thalia came to a halt, the dust kicking up little clouds behind her.

“Morning,” Thalia said cheerfully, shading her eyes from the sun with her hand as she spoke to Reyna. Even though it looked like she'd been running pretty fast, she wasn't out of breath or sweaty at all.

Reyna realized she was staring and quickly looked away. “Hi,” she mumbled.

“I wasn't really expecting to see anyone else out this early on a Sunday morning,” Thalia said, grinning.

“Neither was I, honestly.”

“Do you want to run together?” Thalia suggested. “I only just started.”

“Sure,” Reyna said. “Actually, that would be great. I've mainly just been running around the neighborhood, but if you have any other routes, I'd love to learn them.”

Thalia nodded. “There's a fire trail at the top of the road that loops around. The trailhead is about a mile away, and then the trail itself is around four miles, if you want me to show you?”

“That sounds perfect.”

They started jogging up the road, keeping a fairly moderate pace. Reyna was actually struggling a bit - she was still getting used to the altitude. Reyna had never had a running partner who could comfortably keep up with her pace before, so this was an odd - but welcome - experience for her.

“So what did you think of the party last night?” Thalia asked Reyna, smiling. “You stayed the whole time, so that's promising.”

“It was fun,” Reyna said truthfully. “Everyone was really friendly.”

“Yep. That's the nice thing about small towns. Everyone wants to know everyone else.” Thalia grinned. “One could also say that's a downfall of small towns.”

“No privacy?” Reyna asked.

“None,” Thalia agreed. “You get used to it, though.”

They made it up to the trailhead, where the tall, leafy aspens lining the narrow trail provided some much-needed shade. Even though it was only eight in the morning, it was already getting sunny and warm. During one particularly steep and seemingly neverending uphill stretch, Reyna slowed to a walk and put up her hands, panting. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I guess I'm more out of shape than I thought.”

Thalia shook her head. “No way,” she said. “You're from the Bay Area; there's no way you're out of shape, what with the crazy hills you guys have there. You're probably still adjusting to the altitude.”

“Sure, I'll go with that.”

“Do you want to walk the rest of the way home? We only have two or three miles left,” Thalia suggested.

“Would you think I'm a wimp?” Reyna wondered.

Thalia laughed. “Absolutely not.”

They ended up alternating walking and jogging for the rest of the way home. By that time, the sun had climbed even higher in the sky, and Reyna could tell it was going to be another hot and dry day in New Rome.

“This was fun,” Reyna said as they got close to her house. “Thanks for showing me the trail.”

“It was fun,” Thalia agreed. “We should do it again.”

“I promise I won't have to stop to walk next time,” Reyna said.

They said goodbye, and Reyna jogged up her dirt driveway and into her house, thinking that, even though it hadn't been the most successful workout, at least she'd gotten to know her friendly neighbor and colleague a little bit better.

 

* * *

 

After returning home from the run, Thalia downed a couple of glasses of water and then hopped in the shower. She had never had a running partner who'd been able to keep up with her pace for as long as Reyna had, so she was in a good mood; this had been the most enjoyable run she'd had for a long time. She hoped she could convince Reyna to run with her more often. Training was always more fun with a partner.

That evening, Thalia went to the Imperial to meet up with Jason and Piper for dinner. They tried to do this most Sunday nights, but it didn't always work, especially since they all had such unpredictable work schedules. But today, the stars had aligned perfectly for Thalia to see her little brother and his wife, even though they had already kind of seen each other yesterday at the party, and even though Thalia was still technically on call.

“So you seemed to get along well with Reyna yesterday,” Jason said to Thalia halfway through the main course.

“Yeah. She's nice. In fact, I ran into her at the beginning of my run this morning. She was going out for a run, too, so we ended up going together.”

“And she kept up with you?” Jason asked with an awed expression.

Thalia nodded. “Well, we kind of had to slow down about two-thirds of the way in, but it was hilly, and she's only just moved here, so it was probably the altitude.”

“Wow,” Jason said, obviously impressed. “No one else has ever been able to keep up with you. You've dominated the annual police department 5k fun run pretty much every year that you've lived here.”

“Well, the competition isn't very strong,” Thalia teased.

Jason opened his mouth, obviously about to protest, but Piper put a hand on his arm to stop him and said quickly, “Tell us more about Reyna. We couldn't really get a read on her yesterday at the party; she was kind of quiet.”

“She's really nice,” Thalia repeated. “I think she's just a little shy. And I think it didn't help that the party was so big yesterday. It must have been overwhelming.”

Jason narrowed his eyes. “Hmm,” he said. “You should ask her out.”

Thalia nearly choked on her sip of water. “ _What?_ ” she spluttered.

“What, _what_? She can keep up with you on your crazy runs, and you obviously like her. You said she was nice twice.” Jason's amused, teasing expression was infuriating.

“That's because you asked me twice. I hardly know her.” Thalia exchanged an eyeroll with Piper, who looked exasperated in an amused sort of way.

Before Thalia could continue berating her brother, her phone pinged with a text. It was the fire chief, Phoebe.

“There's a fire at Leo's gas station,” Thalia said, frowning with concern and standing up. “I'm sorry…I have to go.”

“Oh, my goodness,” Piper gasped, exchanging a worried glance with her husband. “Is he okay?”

“Apparently no one was inside, which is good,” Thalia said.

“That's good,” Piper said, looking relieved. “But we should go see him.”

Jason nodded in agreement, and, after paying, the three of them hurried out of the restaurant and headed to the gas station to see what was going on.


End file.
